Happy Independence Day Mr Monk
by Miss Ann Peek
Summary: Response to the Great Monk Fanfic Challenge at USA's Monk message board. The Monk Gang celebrate the Fourth of July.


a/n I'd like to acknowledge the undeniable fact that these characters that I am writing about are not mine

_a/n I'd like to acknowledge the undeniable fact that these characters that I am writing about are not mine. _

_This fic is a response to __The Great Monk Fan Fiction Challenge__, which was started on the __Monk Message Boards__ at __USA's website__. _

The first challenge is: the **Monk gang celebrates the Fourth of July** with a length of **800 – 2000 words. **

_Word Count: (Story only, not the authors notes) 995_

**Happy Independence Day Mr. Monk. **

By Ann Peek

It was like today was made for a July 4th barbecue. The sky was cloudless, the temperature peaked at 84 degrees. Everyone seemed to be having a great time eating, drinking, listening to music and playing games, and they eagerly awaited the big fireworks show.

Well, maybe not everyone.

"You can do it, Mr. Monk." Natalie encouraged her boss and friend, as she moved her sparkler closer to his unlit one. Before they could touch, he pulled his sparkler away.

"No, Natalie, " Monk groaned. "I can't."

"It's okay, Mr. Monk, they're not dangerous." She waved her hand a few inches over the sparkler with no ill effects.

"Stop! Natalie, are you suicidal?" Monk flinched from her daredevil act.

"Hey, Monk, Natalie, are you two having fun?"

Monk actually looked relieved to see Lt. Disher. It meant that Natalie would be distracted from trying to get him handle open flames.

"Yeah, Randy. I thought it was a great idea it was to have the 4th of July barbecue be a benefit for the families of fallen officers…" As she was talking, Natalie noticed that something else had caught Randy's attention. She looked over her shoulder to see that the 'something' was a young blond in shorts and a tank top, who was walking by them.

"Yeah, good luck with that." Randy said as he ambled off to talk to this blond. "Hi."

"Hi." The young blond sat on one of the benches, and Randy sat next to her.

"My name's Randy." He smiled.

"I'm Elizabeth."

"Well, Elizabeth, are you having a good time?"

"I sure am," She smiled.

"Can I get you something to drink?"

"No thank you. My boyfriend, Biff, is getting my drink." She said, indicating a huge, tank of a man, with a face like a bucket, who seemed to come from out of nowhere. He wedged himself between Elizabeth and Randy, before asking his beloved if Randy was, in fact, bothering her.

"I was just making sure her needs were being taken care of." Randy smiled at the goliath of a man, before his brain kicked in, and he amended his original statement. "Her beverage need. I was taking care of her beverage needs. But I see that you have those covered."

As Randy jabbered on, a miracle happened. A football smacked him in the back of the head, and bounced a few feet away. "Oh, hey, I got it!" He called, a little dizzily and staggered off to retrieve the ball, and bring it back to its owner, his boss, Captain Leland Stottlemeyer.

"Thank you, Lieutenant" Stottlemeyer took the football from Randy, as Jared and Max walked over.

"Hey, guys. Are you having fun?" Disher asked.

Max shrugged, answering with a half-hearted, "Yeah. I guess so."

Jared's hangdog expression, however, couldn't hide the fact that he would almost rather be in school. "The beach would have been more fun. Or anywhere else."

Randy sympathized with the boys, and opened his mouth to say something sympathetic, when a pretty brunette walked by. "Hi, my name is Randy," he said, as he fell into step beside young woman.

Stottlemeyer chuckled and turned back to Jared. "If you're not having fun, we could leave and do something else."

"No, it's okay." Max says, "Mom said this was for your work."

"Well, it is, but I could get Randy to take my place. I'm sure no one would miss me.'

Jared's face lit up." Maybe you could teach us how to ride a motorcycle or something?"

"I don't see why not." Stottlemeyer conceded.

As they were headed towards the parking lot, Jared was drawn to the play area where three young women worked. One of them was Julie Teeger.

The Captain looked between Julie and Jared. His son didn't say anything, he just looked at Julie with a shy smile. "Hi, Julie," The Captain chuckled.

"Hi, Captain Stottlemeyer. Did you want some sparklers?"

The Captain looked at Jared, who still was speechless. "No, Julie, we were just leaving," he said as he dragged his son away.

Julie overheard Max Stottlemeyer say, in a singsong tone, "Jared's got a girlfriend."

"Shut up, Max," Jared answered.

The girls giggled, and went back to their job. Julie's had volunteered, with two friends from school, to have a play area for the little kids so that their parents could have some fun at the gathering. Julie passed out sparklers to the little kids, and made sure that they were playing with them safely. "Here you go." She said as she handed one to a little girl. "And here's one for you. Hold it out, like this." She said, demonstrating how to hold it, as she passed it to a small boy.

She looked up to see her mom and Mr. Monk nearby. Mr. Monk looked miserable, and Julie thought that he might need some cheering up. "I'll be right back," she told the other girls, as she took a lit sparkler and ran the short distance to where they were.

"Here you go, Mr. Monk." She handed a sparkler over to Mr. Monk, and his whole body stiffened with fear, but he tried to look casual.

After Julie left them to return to her post, Natalie gently encouraged him. "Way to go, Mr. Monk. You're doing it."

"I'm doing it." Monk repeated as he held the sparkler as far from himself as his arm would reach, with a half-terrified smile on his face. He watched the sparkler burn down for a few seconds, before tossing it into a bucket of water.

"I knew you could." Natalie said, as she walked him toward the snack table to find some bottled water for her boss. "I'm proud of you, Mr. Monk,"

"Did you see how big those sparks were?" Monk asked. "I could have been killed."

"I never would have let that happen, Mr. Monk." Natalie said as she took his arm.

Reviews/comments love. I will even go for a bad review/ negative comment. Someone's got to be checking these things out.


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